"I am Strong, because I've been Weak. I am fearless, because I've been Afraid. I am Wise, because I've been foolish."

Spartan Shape-Up, Day 168:

Crossfit Day today, Blogland! Yes. I was dreading it. No, I didn't die. In fact, I survived and did okay. I'm exhausted tonight (and sore as HELL), so I'm going to keep this one short.

So, despite my dread, and with a little help from my GT and friends (sometimes, you just need an enthusiastic text message at 6:27am to remind you WTF you're doing.), I got my sneakers on and out into the arctic cold.

It went something like this:
Warm Up: 3 Rounds Of.....

•  10 Walking Lunges
• 10 Superman's
• 10 Push-Ups

Strength/SKill:

• Front Squat: 3-3-3-3 @ 80% of 1 RM

YAY Front Squats! Yes. I know. I'm ridiculous. But it helps to start a day you're totally dreading with something you do pretty well. Today, because we were on a bit of a time crunch, and I was sharing a bar, my weight only made it to 95#, which I was front squatting easily. It will be interesting, one day in the near future, to figure out what my one rep max really is for that. HMM.

Then, we moved onto hell (or so I thought).

Workout: "Fight Gone Airborne": 3 Rounds, 1 Minute Each Of......

• Burpee Broad Jump: 8' = 1 rep
• Rope Climb: 15' = 5 reps
• Paralette Pass-Through: each pass = 1 rep
• Box Jumps (24/20)
• Ring Rows

So, this is where I should start by saying, I didn't die, and I was being stupid for nothing. Like any great Crossfit class, there was a learning component to each move, and 400 different ways to scale everything. I won't go into the details of each move (see last night's entry), but I do have some exciting news:

I totally got halfway up the (unknotted) rope. 

HALFWAY!

That's pretty awesome, as far as I'm concerned, considering I was pretty sure I was going to just dangle, 3 inches above the ground. Now, I certainly have a learning curve to go, as one I started getting some of the different foot/wrapping techniques, it became much easier, but by then, my grip was tiring. A lot. I certainly could not have done this by the end of the workout. MORE PRACTICE needed. I was a little nervous... You don't have to get very high up to feel like you're very high up. But I was determined. What's the secret to getting up a rope? Go until you think you can't go anymore, then pull ONE more time. Try not to go into panic/survival mode. haha...

This workout was a lot of upper body stuff. My entire shoulder/back region feels REAL angry. However, tomorrow is a run day, and therefore, the angry upper body will get a break. :-)

So, I'm too exhausted to ramble on like I usually would... but, this is just a lesson learned. It's never as bad as you think it is. Just do it. haha

In other news, I randomly won $50 a work today, and decided that was a sign that I needed to buy some cold-weather running tights. For real. UA Winter Compression tights are currently on their way to me!!! EEE!!

And now.... ZZZzZzZZZzzzzzZZZZ....